Opportunities
by Supermorff
Summary: Set during the events of 'Window of Opportunity', Jack finds that kiss has unexpected consequences. An unabashed SamJack piece.


This piece is set during the episode 'Window of Opportunity'. It's a great episode, hilariously funny, and I highly recommend it. This is a Sam/Jack fic, but like the rest of the episode it is completely half-hearted (is that an oxymoron?).

**Spoiler Warning:** There are obvious spoilers for 'Window of Opportunity', but also less obvious ones for 'Divide and Conquer'.

**Disclaimer:** Stargate's not mine, and nor are any people or places (I think slavery has been banned). Couldn't tell you who it does belong to though, because I don't know.

* * *

Jack grinned in anticipation. He'd had fun, that was certainly true, but there was something he was determined to do before this day was over.

As he approached the control room he drew a number of odd looks. But he was wearing a ridiculous outfit. He'd scoured the base earlier for the most casual clothes he could find. When Danny had seen him wearing them, he'd been the only one to ask Jack why he was wearing them.

"I'm going to retire," Jack had told him. Daniel had looked confused for a moment before asking,

"Why?" Jack had just smiled.

"Because I feel like it."

When he entered the control room, he saw Carter and General Hammond standing by the window standing by the window, watching as the Gate's chevrons lit up, one by one, tolling on the inevitable. It was the perfect scenario for what he had planned. He smiled, even though he had known that they would both be there. He clutched the piece of paper in his hand nervously. Frankly it wasn't that important, but it had taken quite a while to write, and his knuckles turned white.

"Hey George," he said as he reached them, clapping the General on the shoulder. They both turned to look at him, oblivious to the coming oblivion, shocked at the outrageous garb.

"Colonel, why are you out of uniform?" Hammond asked, eyes wide, clearly thrown off guard by Jack's display of familiarity, then further when Jack pressed the letter into his hand.

"Because I'm handing in my resignation," replied Jack, eliciting yet more confusion. Hammond was literally speechless, and it fell to Sam, Jack's astrophysicist second-in-command, to ask,

"You're retiring? Why?"

"So I can do this…" and Jack turned to face her, moving forward to embrace her, and pressed his lips to hers so suddenly that she barely had time to draw breath.

As the final chevron locked and the General stared in disbelief, Jack deepened the kiss, spinning Sam round and dipping her beneath him. In the moment before the end, Jack thought he felt two arms snake behind his neck. And was that…?

The world went white.

"Anyway, that's just how _I_ feel about it. What do you think?" Jack was in the commissary again. The elusive – and fantastic – taste of Major Carter was once again replaced by the all-too-familiar taste of Fruit Loops, he was a Colonel in the US Air Force again, and Daniel was badgering him about that annoying question.

Damn.

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It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be short – memorable, yes – but a one-time thing only. Instead, the kiss did nothing but plague him with questions and doubt. Carter hadn't returned his kiss, but had she been trying to? Were her arms moving to hold him close or push him away? And was that really…?

He'd had feelings for her for a long time, but regulations had prevented him from acting on them, and in time they had become a part of the background. Just recently – though it seemed an eternity ago now – he had been forced to accept how they felt about each other when the Tok'ra checked them both for Zatarcs. But that hadn't changed the fact that they could never be together. Had it?

Because of the wackiness that this day had brought with it – the same ten hours repeating over and over again in exactly the same way – it seemed like the perfect time to find out if they had a chance. After all, what was it Daniel had said? "If you know that everything will just go back to the way it was before, you can do anything… without having to worry about consequences."

So why was he still scared?

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Jack took a deep breath, and was afraid to release it for a moment. Still, it was like getting in a cold swimming pool. He dove in.

"Carter… no, Sam… You know I care for you, more than I should. I know we said that we could our relationship professional, and I thought I could live with that, but recently I'm not so sure. If I was to retire – again – do you think, maybe, we could have a chance at something… more?" Jack paused, and breathed again. He'd been so nervous he hadn't even realised he'd been holding it in. He watched his audience's face intently, looking for some indication of… he wasn't sure what. Instead, there was nothing. "What do you think?" he prompted.

Daniel pursed his lips. "Well… it's certainly… interesting. So why did you say it to me?" Jack stood up and rubbed his face.

"I don't know. I just can't bring myself to ask Carter herself."

"Why?"

"I don't know! You said there would be no repercussions! So why can't I do it?"

"Because in this situation, there will be repercussions. Just because nobody else will remember, doesn't change the fact that you will know. You're probably afraid in case she turns you down." Jack sighed.

"What should I do?"

"Why are you asking me, Jack? I mean there must be someone better qualified to give you advice."

"Well, you've been married, and you're not going to remember anyway. And… well, I guess I trust you." Daniel smiled, nodded and stood up.

"Okay, well, I can't tell you definitively. If you want, I could ask her for you, and tell you whether or not you should ask her?" Jack grimaced. If he did this, he was going to do it himself. "You don't like that idea, huh? You could write a letter."

"A letter? You think I'd be able to say what I mean in a letter? I don't even like writing memos. No, if I'm going to do this, I have to do it face to face."

"Then you have two choices left. Either you don't ask, and you never find out, or you go for it. Talk to her, Jack. If I'm right, you don't have anything to worry about." Daniel smiled as Jack mulled it over.

"You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Well it's about time you admitted it. And it's kind of gratifying to see Jack O'Neill in such a predicament." Jack rolled his eyes as he left, and muttered.

"I am _so_ glad that you're not going to remember this."

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Sam hadn't really been working on anything important when she heard the distinctive raps at her office door. She'd been thinking about Colonel O'Neill. He'd been acting strangely since breakfast. First he'd seemed quite upbeat, and he'd been giving her some odd looks, and then he'd become sullen and withdrawn and had avoided her like some virulent disease. She'd wondered at first if Daniel's question had driven him over the edge, but apparently Teal'c was also acting strangely. They'd both skipped the briefing earlier, and the mission had been postponed until they could be found. Rumours were now circulating the base, saying that they acted as if this was the last day on earth. It was quite worrying, because she knew Jack wouldn't be reckless unless there was some reason. She smiled a wry smile to herself – he was Jack in her mind, but she could never actually call him that. She'd had to live with that since they first met, but then the Zatarc detector had forced their attraction into the open. It was killing her every day they spent together. He was coping better than she was. What had he said? "I care about her, more than I should." Maybe that's all it was for him, caring… did he 'care' for her the same way he cared for, say, Daniel? And what hurt most was that, because of Air Force regulations, she would never know how he really felt.

So when she heard his knock, she tried her hardest to remain nonplussed, as if he turned up at her door all the time. Which, technically, he did.

"Colonel? Can I help you?" Then she saw his face, and paused. He wasn't the ever-chipper Jack she knew and loved. He seemed remarkably… serious. More so even than when he was on assignment, fighting the Goa'uld. "Sir?" He looked up. Was he blushing? Was Jack O'Neill blushing?

"Carter? I… uh…" And he was incoherent as well? What was going on?

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"How did it go, Jack?" Daniel wasn't certain that he had ever seen Jack so flustered.

"Not well."

"What happened?"

"Well, I went to see her in her office."

"Yeah?"

"It started out okay…"

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"Carter? I… uh… I was wondering…"

"Yes, sir?" Carter smiled and raised her eyebrows.

"I… um… So, what are you working on?"

------------------------------

"You chickened out?"

"Kind of."

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"Not much, sir. Just going over some of my old equations. Some of them have been made completely redundant due to recent discoveries about the Stargate. I'm just updating some theories."

"Oh… Can I have a look?"

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"Very smooth." Jack sighed.

"Thank you."

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"You really want to see my research?"

"Sure… why not?"

"It's just that you've never…"

"What?"

"Well, there's nothing really new here."

"That's okay. It'll be new to me."

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"True enough."

"I could have sworn she said exactly the same thing under her breath. You know, that way she sometimes does when she doesn't think you'll hear?" Daniel narrowed his eyes.

"No…"

"Oh. Well, then just forget about it. Hah, I guess you will."

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"Um… okay, sir. Are you sure you'll be able to understand this?"

"… No. What's this one?"

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"What was it?" Jack breathed in deeply, then exhaled.

"I don't remember."

"So much for that plan."

"It gets worse."

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"Colonel, maybe you should just go to the commissary. I hear General Hammond is looking for you." Jack nodded, and stood up, displacing the steaming cup of coffee on the desk.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry," Jack apologised as Sam threw herself from the seat, screaming from the pain in her lap. He snatched a towel from the rack on the side just as Sam managed to shed her fatigue pants. "Let me help," he offered, lunging towards her groin.

"No! I think you've done enough," she screamed, skipping back and forth, dodging the over-attentive colonel with a towel. In seconds, though, she knocked a foot against a chair leg and fell sprawling onto the floor. Jack soon followed suit, stumbled and landed on top of her.

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"Oh boy…"

"Would you please let me finish?"

"Sorry."

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He was on top of her, he realised, his face mere inches from hers. He could feel her breath on his face, and it smelled… He thought about kissing her again, wanted to so badly, but forced himself not to. No, that wasn't why he was here. Plus she was trying to push him off with all of her strength. That probably wasn't a good sign. Suddenly, Jack realised she was saying something.

"Get off!" Jack quickly tried to remove himself and move away, but as he did so their legs became entangled and they fell into another heap, pulling Sam's paperwork off of the table as they did so.

There was silence for awhile, once the world had stopped crashing around their ears. Then Sam asked again.

"Sir, please get off me now." Nothing happened. "Sir?"

"Uh… Carter, I think I'm stuck."

Daniel couldn't contain his mirth. "Stop it," he ordered, clutching his ribs as if they'd split if he didn't, "you're killing me!"

Jack just grinned sheepishly.

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It was at that moment that General Hammond decided to make an appearance. In no time his eyes had taken in the discarded pants, the toppled chair, the desk swept clean, and, of course, his two best officers lying on the floor in an… extremely compromising position.

"Colonel, Major, what is going on here?" he demanded, in his loudest voice.

"Hey, George," said the Colonel, straining his neck to see what was going on. "Think you could give us a hand?"

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Between the chortles, Daniel managed to wipe his eyes and ask,

"What did he say?"

"You know, I think he thought I was making a pass."

"So what happened?"

"Well we went to his office – after finding Carter some more pants, of course – and he balled us out. Once we'd given our versions of events – minus my original intention, of course – he let us go. The mission's been cancelled, by the way. He wants us to sort this out before we go back on active duty."

"Look on the bright side, at least it happened today. Now all you have to do is wait just a few more hours and you can try all over again."

"No, I have to try again this loop. If she can't forgive that accident, then I'll have my answer."

"Jack, if she doesn't forgive you today, that doesn't mean she doesn't love you. People need time to forgive. Just don't take it too hard if she shoots you down."

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Sitting at her desk, soap in hand, Samantha Carter was diligently trying to remove the huge coffee stain from her pants. It wasn't working she realised. The reprimand from General Hammond had taken too long. She sighed and placed both items on the table. Who knows? Perhaps the coffee stains improve the camouflage effects of the pants anyway, she thought. She'd have to investigate further. Using Jack as a test subject of course. No, she would never do that. Despite the awkward situation they'd been in earlier, for the most part she enjoyed his company.

There was another knock at the door, and she looked up. There was Jack again, and once again he wore a sombre expression. What was wrong with him today?

"Carter, we need to talk." Sam would have thrown a quip at him, but she was intrigued.

"Sir?"

"About what happened earlier…" he began, and Sam was surprised. Jack wasn't the kind of person who apologised for something like that. Of course, he didn't really seem to be the kind of person to get into such situations in the first place. "I want to explain myself."

"That's okay, sir…"

"No, it's not okay. I came here to tell you something, and it just turned into a farce."

"What did you want to tell me?" Jack pulled a hand down his face, then pulled up a chair.

"Sam, I need to know…" Sam's eyes went wide. "What?"

"Nothing," she covered quickly, and tried to look as normal as possible. Had he used her first name? She couldn't remember him ever doing that before.

"I… Sam, I'm going to retire." She was shocked.

"What? Why?"

"It doesn't matter. The important thing is that I'm going to do it, and nothing you do or say will change that." Sam was confused. Why was he telling her this? Was this why he'd been acting strange all day?

"I can't talk you out of it?"

"No. But there was something I had to ask you before I left."

"What?"

"Do you think… seeing as how I'm not going to be your commanding officer any more…"

Suddenly an alarm sounded throughout the base. There was an incoming wormhole. Jack kicked himself. He had left this far too late. Sam got up to see what was going on but he pulled her back.

"Ignore it, please."

"Sir?"

"This is important." Reluctantly she returned to her seat. Technically that was okay - she didn't have to be at all the unscheduled gate activations, she just liked to be. "Sam, I'm not going to be your CO any more. Would you like to go on a date with me? Maybe?"

Sam was taken aback. She certainly hadn't expected that. Did he love her after all? A smile played around the corner of her mouth.

"Sam, please answer quickly." There was just enough time for her to answer him before the Stargate opened and time folded on itself.

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Sam fidgeted nervously under the scrutiny of her commanding officer. He'd been staring at her a lot today, and it was starting to bother her. He had that effect on her. Finally she decided to find out what he was doing.

"What?" she asked, unable to keep herself from smiling in nervousness. He hardly reacted, just continued to stare, grinning to himself.

"Nothing," he said. Nothing at all.

* * *

The Sam and Jack relationship has been in the background of the episodes for ages. And just when I dare to hope it might actually build into something - for example in 'Lost City', which I think could have ended better (though that would probably make it difficult to make another season) - it just fades into the ether again. This is my attempt to righteously take the piss out of that. This event didn't even make it into the foreground - they skipped over it entirely during 'Window of Opportunity'. But it happened. Oh, yes. And unlike most of my stories, this could easily slot into the episode without disrupting canon.


End file.
